Vacation Dreams

Category: Events

  • Chester Globetrotters Meeting – 17th January 2026

    Speaking on Saturday, 17th January 2026, we have:

    • Beaches and Bothies – a Hebridean Adventure Speaker: Jo Crotty

    This is the story of the most amazing trip to more than 30 beaches, miles of unspoilt sand and
    crystal clear water, plus a few other sites thrown in.

    • Caminos less travelled Speaker: Christine Stockton

    Discover prehistoric paintings, dolmens, medieval towns, Jewish quarters, castles, churches
    and palaces, all less visited than the monumental cities of Spain.

    See www.chesterglobetrotters.com for details.


    Doors open at 1pm for 1:30pm start until 4:00pm
    info@chesterglobetrotters.com – www.chesterglobetrotters.com

    Tickets £5 members/£6 non-members including refreshments (cash only)

  • Saturday, December 5, 2026

    Speaking on Saturday, December 5, 2026, we have :

    1st: Tiffany Coates – Tiffany’s Travels – How It All Started

    he story of how Tiffany Coates went from being a non-rider to setting off heading to India two-up on a BMW just two months later. A journey that was to lead to two and a half years of motorbike adventures before Tiffany eventually made it home having crossed Europe, Asia, Australia and Africa.

    Since that initial journey, Tiffany has gone on to become the world’s foremost female motorbike adventurer, covering over 300,000 miles. She was the first motorcyclist to have crossed Asia on all three classic routes. As well as trips to Timbuktu, Borneo, Tibet, Madagascar and Outer Mongolia. 

    When not out on the road Tiffany lives on the cliffs above Lands End and is an international tour guide guide, leading groups across Asia, Africa and Latin America


    2nd: Speaker to be confirmed


    Date & Time: [meetingdate]

    Doors open at 14:15 in London and on Zoom with the talks starting around 14:45 (London see Event Time Announcer for local times), please arrive before 14:45 and switch your phone to “do not disturb” or silent.

    We would ask that anyone with respiratory symptoms participate via Zoom.

    Admission costs:

    • £7 for members. (Members can access a ticket code below or from the members area.)
    • £10 for non-members. (save £3 if you join at this meeting)
    • a recording to watch later will be available to members and non-member ticket holders.

    Please sign up for meeting updates to get notifications for future meetings.


    Tickets go on sale just before the meetings.

  • Saturday, February 7, 2026

    Speaking on Saturday, February 7, 2026, we have :

    1st: Laura Coffey – Enchanted Islands.

    Join Laura for on a mythical journey through the real world. Together we will travel through tiny archipelagos and explore mystical Mediterranean islands thought to be the setting of Odysseus’s epic journey.

    We will encounter sea monsters and sex goddesses, fragile masculinity, toxic gods, polyamory and plenty of narcissism as we look again at this old text with fresh eyes. Together, we will explore what myths are, the importance of the stories we tell ourselves, and the magical task of mapping imaginary worlds. 

    Laura Coffey is not a classics scholar, she cannot read Ancient Greek, often finds herself utterly lost, and so is an unlikely author of a book on mapping The Odyssey.

    Stephen Fry said it’s “a magical and hugely captivating journey – a simply marvellous read, hugely recommended”

    Laura’s book Enchanted Islands: A Mediterranean Odyssey, has also been selected by Wanderlust and Citizen Femme as a top travel book for 2024, and by Blackwells as recommended summer reading. It has been long listed for the Anglo Hellenic League Runciman Award

    Laura is happy to sign copies after the talk.

    You can find out more about the book: Enchanted Islands: A Mediterranean Odyssey


    2nd: Nick Fielding – Crossing from Almaty to the Aral Sea basin.

    In May 2025 Nick Fielding took part in an expedition with a group of Kazakhs for more than 2000 miles across southern Kazakhstan, from Almaty to the Aral Sea basin in the west of the country.

    For at least the last 50 years the Aral has been drying out as water has been extracted from its two feeder rivers, the Syr Darya and Amu Darya, for agriculture. Fielding travelled to the north of the sea, where there are signs that at least part of the Aral Sea is being regenerated, due to the construction of a new dam.

    Further south, there is only sand and scrub where there was once an inland sea. He visited the former island nature reserve of Barsa Kelemes, which is now surrounded by an ocean of sand.

    He was also able to visit some of the many impressive archaeological sites along the route.


    Date & Time: [meetingdate]

    Doors open at 14:15 in London and on Zoom with the talks starting around 14:45 (London see Event Time Announcer for local times), please arrive before 14:45 and switch your phone to “do not disturb” or silent.

    We would ask that anyone with respiratory symptoms participate via Zoom.

    Admission costs:

    • £7 for members. (Members can access a ticket code below or from the members area.)
    • £10 for non-members. (save £3 if you join at this meeting)
    • a recording to watch later will be available to members and non-member ticket holders.

    Please sign up for meeting updates to get notifications for future meetings.


    For in person tickets at the hall:

    For Zoom online tickets:

  • Saturday, June 6, 2026

    Speaking on Saturday, June 6, 2026, we have :

    1st: Helen Spencer – a Last Degree Expedition to The South Pole

    2nd: Speaker to be confirmed


    Date & Time: [meetingdate]

    Doors open at 14:15 in London and on Zoom with the talks starting around 14:45 (London see Event Time Announcer for local times), please arrive before 14:45 and switch your phone to “do not disturb” or silent.

    We would ask that anyone with respiratory symptoms participate via Zoom.

    Admission costs:

    • £7 for members. (Members can access a ticket code below or from the members area.)
    • £10 for non-members. (save £3 if you join at this meeting)
    • a recording to watch later will be available to members and non-member ticket holders.

    Please sign up for meeting updates to get notifications for future meetings.


    Tickets go on sale just before the meetings.

  • Saturday, July 4, 2026

    Speaking on Saturday, July 4, 2026, we have :

    1st: Mary Fogarty – From mountains and men to Speedos and souks.

    2nd: Speaker to be confirmed


    Date & Time: [meetingdate]

    Doors open at 14:15 in London and on Zoom with the talks starting around 14:45 (London see Event Time Announcer for local times), please arrive before 14:45 and switch your phone to “do not disturb” or silent.

    We would ask that anyone with respiratory symptoms participate via Zoom.

    Admission costs:

    • £7 for members. (Members can access a ticket code below or from the members area.)
    • £10 for non-members. (save £3 if you join at this meeting)
    • a recording to watch later will be available to members and non-member ticket holders.

    Please sign up for meeting updates to get notifications for future meetings.


    Tickets go on sale just before the meetings.

  • Saturday, September 5, 2026

    Speaking on Saturday, September 5, 2026, we have :

    1st: Speaker to be confirmed

    2nd: Speaker to be confirmed


    Date & Time: [meetingdate]

    Doors open at 14:15 in London and on Zoom with the talks starting around 14:45 (London see Event Time Announcer for local times), please arrive before 14:45 and switch your phone to “do not disturb” or silent.

    We would ask that anyone with respiratory symptoms participate via Zoom.

    Admission costs:

    • £7 for members. (Members can access a ticket code below or from the members area.)
    • £10 for non-members. (save £3 if you join at this meeting)
    • a recording to watch later will be available to members and non-member ticket holders.

    Please sign up for meeting updates to get notifications for future meetings.


    Tickets go on sale just before the meetings.

  • Saturday, October 3, 2026

    Speaking on Saturday, October 3, 2026, we have :

    1st: Speaker to be confirmed

    2nd: Speaker to be confirmed


    Date & Time: [meetingdate]

    Doors open at 14:15 in London and on Zoom with the talks starting around 14:45 (London see Event Time Announcer for local times), please arrive before 14:45 and switch your phone to “do not disturb” or silent.

    We would ask that anyone with respiratory symptoms participate via Zoom.

    Admission costs:

    • £7 for members. (Members can access a ticket code below or from the members area.)
    • £10 for non-members. (save £3 if you join at this meeting)
    • a recording to watch later will be available to members and non-member ticket holders.

    Please sign up for meeting updates to get notifications for future meetings.


    Tickets go on sale just before the meetings.

  • Saturday, November 7, 2026

    Speaking on Saturday, November 7, 2026, we have :

    1st: Speaker to be confirmed

    2nd: Speaker to be confirmed


    Date & Time: [meetingdate]

    Doors open at 14:15 in London and on Zoom with the talks starting around 14:45 (London see Event Time Announcer for local times), please arrive before 14:45 and switch your phone to “do not disturb” or silent.

    We would ask that anyone with respiratory symptoms participate via Zoom.

    Admission costs:

    • £7 for members. (Members can access a ticket code below or from the members area.)
    • £10 for non-members. (save £3 if you join at this meeting)
    • a recording to watch later will be available to members and non-member ticket holders.

    Please sign up for meeting updates to get notifications for future meetings.


    Tickets go on sale just before the meetings.

  • Saturday, January 3, 2026

    Speaking on Saturday, January 3, 2026, we have :

    Around the world in eighty minutes.

    8-10 presentations of 10 slides

    The format is talks by eight to ten speakers for ten minutes giving a fast-paced journey around the Globe.

    There are four talks before the break and four to five talks after the break, with each speaker having around 10 minutes to speak. 

    The running order is:

    • 1 Sandra Reekie – Biggest Recycling Centre in the World in Mumbai
    • 2 Doreen Tayler – Vienna and Slovakia
    • 3 Mike Smith – ‘Uninhabited Islands’ in the Outer Hebrides
    • 4 Elizabeth Mioduchowski – 3rd Year of University in Spain
    • Tea Break
    • 5 Mary Fogarty – Pilgrimage and Purgatory in Međugorje
    • 6 Peter Payne – Yangshuo, Southern China, ‘the Most Beautiful Place in the World’.
    • 7 Simon Finnamore – Vietnam Cambodia & Thailand
    • 8 Sheila Robinson – Portugal – A Whistlestop Tour

    We still have a few spots open, if you would like to give a talk, please sign up here.

    https://forms.gle/YmP6AheWexDGZqeWA

    or email london@globetrotters.co.uk

    Traditionally, we follow this meeting with a New Year’s Party post-meeting.

    Everyone is invited to bring food, wine1, or soft drinks (we are not allowed beer or spirits) and participate!

    We have now received permission for wine at the post-meeting New Year’s party, everyone is invited to bring food and wine or soft drinks.

    (We will not have access to the kitchen to heat food, so please bring food that is ready to eat.)


    Date & Time: [meetingdate]

    Doors open at 14:15 in London and on Zoom with the talks starting around 14:45 (London see Event Time Announcer for local times), please arrive before 14:45 and switch your phone to “do not disturb” or silent.

    We would ask that anyone with respiratory symptoms participate via Zoom.

    Admission costs:

    • £7 for members. (Members can access a ticket code below or from the members area.)
    • £10 for non-members. (save £3 if you join at this meeting)
    • a recording to watch later will be available to members and non-member ticket holders.

    Please sign up for meeting updates to get notifications for future meetings.


    For in person Tickets at the hall:

    For Zoom online tickets:

  • Toronto GTs meeting – Friday, November 21, 2025

    Join us on Friday, November 21 at 8 p.m.
    OLD YORK TOWER, 85 THE ESPLANADE, (SE corner of Church St.)

    On November 21 the presentation will be about Andorra by Peter Jennings who spent many years living there.

    Also, if you have 10 interesting travel pictures to share & 10 minutes to talk about them, bring them along on a memory stick.

    Join us at OLD YORK TOWER, 85 THE ESPLANADE, in downtown Toronto.

    We are always looking for volunteer presenters.

    Please contact
    Svatka Hermanek hermaneks@yahoo.ca or
    Bruce Weber bruceaweber@hotmail.com
    EVERYONE WELCOME – ESPECIALLY VISITING TRAVELERS